The air ambulance company provides its services to the public via government contracts.
Photograph: Flying Doctors Nigeria

Dr Olamide Orekunrin has delivered the healthcare innovation that Nigeria’s government has yet to: Flying Doctors Nigeria. The air ambulance company has airlifted more than 500 patients to safety, and has seen Orekunrin rewarded with a TED fellowship, as well as lecturing on entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It’s a beacon of hope, with 20 aircraft and 47 staff. Forty-four of the staff are doctors, including a team of senior flight physicians who are skilled in critical care designed to work miles above ground.

As well as moving injured and ill patients to hospital, Flying Doctors sets up medical infrastructure for the government, and works with private companies to improve their on-site medical services.

But the service was born of a tragedy. Orekunrin, a British Nigerian, had been thinking about using her skills to improve African healthcare since she was a medical student. “It was around that time,” she says, “that my younger sister got very ill in Nigeria. We tried to fly her to a more suitable position for her condition, but there was nowhere available – so she died. That’s when I got the inspiration to set up an air ambulance transport service.”

There’s no typical day for Orekunrin at Flying Doctors. “Every day is very different, but it’s mainly centred around one of our offices, either in Lagos or Port Harcourt,” she says. “I manage evacuations, look at clinic systems, [I’m] having various meetings with various stakeholders, or travelling to speak at an event.”

Orekunrin, 28, was raised in Suffolk, and educated at York University’s Hull York Medical School. Starting a business in your early 20s is never the safest option for a graduate. Despite her success, Orekunrin is self-deprecating. “I’ve never been extraordinarily intelligent,” she laughs. “People think you have to be some kind of genius to start a business. I think it’s quite the opposite actually. You have to have a very unrealistic view of life to start a business, because most businesses fail.”

She was attempting to do what had yet to be done in a country with systems and customs she was unfamiliar with. But she is adamant that entrepreneurship in Africa yields results unlike anywhere else. “There’s more opportunity to establish yourself as an entrepreneur in Africa, as opposed to anywhere else where most things doable have been done.”

The odds were stacked against her. “Infrastructure is one of the biggest problems facing Africa today, in terms of development of the economy. It’s one of the key challenges that any business faces, from oil and gas manufacturing to healthcare.”

Since its inception, the air ambulance service has travelled the world. But Orekunrin emphasises that mere existence of the service has more impact than the length of the journeys it makes. “The most impact is still within west Africa, transporting people from rural areas to more urban areas for specialist treatment.”

Flying Doctors Nigeria has partnered Nigerian hospitals, each specialising in a particular type of care. For example, Lagos’s Lagoon hospital treats burns and orthopaedic injuries, while Reddington hospital deals with heart problems. Flying Doctors provides its services to the public via contracts with the government, as well as working with private companies. Helicopters are provided for corporate clients running large events, and wealthy families and individuals can set up a membership plan for private emergency healthcare.

Orekunrin comes from a generation of highly skilled young Africans with big ideas about the future of the continent. “A lot of people think that the Nigerian government is going to change Nigeria,” she says. “I really don’t believe that. I believe that as entrepreneurs, we can have so much more influence than politicians. Responsible entrepreneurs have a key role in changing Nigeria and changing the continent.” She believes that “the government is not going to think of innovative, new ways for health. That’s going to be stimulated by the private sector.”

In a lecture delivered at the Aspen Institute, Orekunrin insisted that Nigeria’s entrepreneurs – rather than aid – will be the catalyst that changes the course of the country. She calls the link between Nigeria and the west a “sugar daddy relationship”. “Africa is the richest continent in terms of natural resources,” she says, “but in terms of GDP, and in terms of standards of living, we are still the poorest. I feel like a lot of regulations and a lot of institutions ensure that things stay that way.”

She adds: “If you look at the worldwide institutions that dictate policy, they hardly have any Africans heading them. I think that if you’re not at the table, then you’re on the menu.”

The gross power disparity is apparent in gender too. How does Orekunrin cope as a female leader and entrepreneur in a male-dominated sector? “There’s an issue with gender equality globally,” she responds. “On boards of directors, heads of organisations, in government, and in the private sector … I hope in the future, women will be judged more on what they have to say, and what they think, rather than what they’re wearing or how their hair looks.”

Olamide Orekunrin will be at the Africa Utopia festival on Sunday 14 September at London’s Southbank Centre